Gemotions

The damp chill of the basement seeped into Emily’s bones. She grimaced, the task of cleaning out her great-aunt’s things proving more arduous than she had anticipated. Everything was covered in a layer of grime.

She pulled an envelope from a box labelled “Memories.” Inside was a letter she’d written to a childhood friend. Reading the letter, she felt as though she was looking in a funhouse mirror, distorting what she had thought was true about the past.

The saccharine tone, the forced innocence – it was all so repellent. She dropped the letter, pushing it away from her, and walked away. She needed to breathe.